The Reprisal
'The Reprisal' is an unforgettable examination in microcosm of the Second World War and everything connected with it: murder and arson, poverty and betrayal, heroic courage and illusions of happiness. Continually deliberating and investigating, Brokken takes us with him into the underworld of a small Dutch village during the German occupation, ultimately raising more questions than he answers.
Non-FictionPrint
Original title
De vergelding
Author
Jan Brokken
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'The Reprisal' presents a penetrating and detailed picture of Rhoon in the final years of the war.
de Volkskrant
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The many lively details create an effect that approaches that of Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah. The war becomes a here-and-now, freed of the orderliness and easy judgements projected onto it in retrospect.
Trouw
Brokken is fascinating in his description of how a trauma has divided a small community right up to the present day.
NRC Handelsblad
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Jan Brokken
Jan Brokken (b. 1949) is a writer of novels, travel stories and literary non-fiction. He has garnered international fame with, among other books, 'The Blind Passengers', 'My Little Madness', 'Baltic Souls', 'In the Poet’s House', 'The Reprisal', 'The Cossack’s Garden', 'The Just', 'City Pilgrim' and 'The Camp Painters'. His work has been translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Czech, Portuguese, Spanish and many more.